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I don't understand the problem or if there are any suggestions. If a work is niche, one should be glad they get any publicity at all, and sometimes that's enough. If the info is outdated, then if not yourself then work pages getting updated depends entirely on user traffic pipeline.
Edited by Amonimus TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup^ I get where you're coming from. It's true that any exposure for a niche work is better than none. My concern isn't so much about niche works getting some attention (which is great), but more about the pages for these works getting left in an incomplete or outdated state for long periods of time.
The issue is that pages marked as needing tropes or wiki magic often go untouched for years, despite being listed for potential updates. While it's totally understandable that not every page can be updated instantly (especially with so many niche works out there), the problem is that many of these pages seem to fall into a kind of limbo.
It's not about forcing people to update pages but finding ways to encourage collaboration and attention for the ones that might otherwise be left behind.
Eat your vege-tables (┳━┳) and drink sum milkI mean, either force or hope someone feels like a workaholic. We are understaffed with every project on the wiki, so there's nothing that can be done.
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup^ I understand that the wiki is understaffed and that not every project can get the attention it needs. It’s definitely a challenge.
My intention isn’t to force anyone into updating pages; I just believe there might be ways to facilitate collaboration among users who are interested in specific niche works. While it's true we can’t rely solely on "workaholics" to keep things moving, maybe creating a space for those who want to contribute could help connect interested users with pages that need attention.
Even small efforts can make a big difference, especially if we can encourage more people to participate in updating and maintaining these pages.
Eat your vege-tables (┳━┳) and drink sum milkI mean, it's up to the people who like the work to update it. I'm not sure how you expect people to update and maintain pages for works they aren't familiar with. The issue with these niche works is exactly that — they have a smaller fanbase and less people on the wiki who can help add tropes. It's not so much an issue of "wiki culture" as it is just kind of the inevitable.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall^ I completely understand that it's ultimately up to fans of a work to maintain its pages, and you're right that niche works often come with smaller fanbases.
My concern isn't so much about expecting people unfamiliar with a work to contribute, but rather about how we might encourage those who are fans to get involved. I believe that fostering a sense of community around these niche works could help draw in more contributors.
Creating a dedicated space for discussions or collaborations could help connect fans with the pages that need attention, making it easier for them to engage. It's about finding ways to support the interests of the existing fanbase rather than relying solely on chance.
Eat your vege-tables (┳━┳) and drink sum milkIf people want to talk about a work, they can open a thread in the forums. If people want to edit the work's page(s), they can use the search button.
And, numberswise, if a work is niche then probably the reason its page(s) doesn't see much action is because the group of "people who are fans of that work and also Tropers" is just few in number.
I don't think there's anything here that requires a specialised solution.
On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.If you really want to fill out the niche work pages, I think it would be better to look for whatever forums and Discord servers the fanbase uses and ask for help there instead of asking Tropers who are unfamiliar with the work, though you'll have to remind them to follow certain guidelines and know how to add examples with context. In other words, it would be better to introduce Tv Tropes to the fanbase rather than look for the small cross-section of Tropers who are already fans. Also, I think a lack of activity isn't necessarily a bad thing if you manage to add enough well-written trope examples by yourself anyways. If you can't think of anything to add or change, then either the work page is about as good as it'll get or you'll have to research additional tropes.
I think I can see what you're saying, that for instance there are so many red links which at present go nowhere and that this can be frustrating and unsatisfactory. These might have been added to cover the bases - that is, to link to pages yet to be written, and which will "autopopulate" once the works page is up. The problem with actually writing those pages is that there's only so many hours in the day, and as Amonimus points out, the amount of work to be done is always going to be a lot more than the number of people (or amount of time) available to do it. I keep seeing red-linked references to a 1970's kids' TV show I quite loved and I've had it in mind to come back and write the Works page for it - but setting up a Works page isn't a five-minute edit by any means. You need to allocate time, and to be in the right frame of mind for that. TV tropes is an ongoing labour of love, perhaps, and work involved keeps expanding to be more than the number of tropers?
Elderly curmudgeon and awkward person. Professional old fart.What I will also add is that even if you have tropers who like something and feel it is underrepresented, there could be time committments preventing them from doing so. Personally, whilst I've made it a mini-goal of mine to blue link the links in the Pages Needing Summary section, university and work sap a lot of my time.

Okay... I didn't think I would do this. This is probably the most risky thing I'm gonna say here, but while I'm not the oldest user by a long shot, I think being here for almost 5 years now is enough for me to bring up this subject. To clarify: it's not my intention to make any trouble, and if that happens and I get to be seen as some sort of "pariah" or get banned from my favourite site I've ever been, well... it was nice meeting the tropers who helped me along the way.
[*sighs*] Well, here we go, I'm gonna address a persistent issue within the site itself. I may not be the first to point this out, but I feel like I’m speaking for others who’ve noticed it, too.
Look, I know that there are people who just want to enjoy and see pages, I know that users are free to edit whatever and whenever it feels like it. It's okay. Really. Free will obviously exists and nobody should be forced to edit something they don't want or don't know about in a work, and there are indeed almost an infinite amount of works globally, some more obscure than others...
That being said, anything has its limits, and while it's true that niche works and creators are indeed niche, this is still no justification to just let a great amount of pages left to be undead. "It's how wiki culture works" shouldn’t be an automatic excuse to leave so many pages unresolved or unfinished. Works Needing Tropes and Pages Needing Wiki Magic have pages that haven't been touched for at least a year, and at this point, adding something to those lists feels like shouting into the void nownote .
And no, despite what I've been told
, crosswicking only helps so little, if at all, especially if there are, just to give an example, pages about mods, which is even less likely to have the page's example crosswicked.
I'm thinking, like I've said in a forum
, just as a random idea, that maybe we can find an alternative for people who may actually be interested in editing a page for a work or things related to said work (like say mods, sequels, derivative works, etc.) but maybe they actually don't know their existence, something like a social group or special area where people can interact and collaborate on these pages—because promoting them in forums often has the opposite effect. Obviously, someone might come up with a better idea, but I think the key is finding an alternative solution.
But either way, sorry for the Wall of Text and if I’ve stirred up any bad blood. I just really wanted to bring attention to this issue because it's so hard to ignore now.